Security file



Feb. 11, 1969 L. w. HEYL ETAL 3,426,707

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SECURITY FILE Filed Sept. 9, 1966 INVEN'IORS a; W? $2M" United States Patent 3,426,707 SECURITY FILE Leo W. Heyl and Robert W. Maynard, Cincinnati, Ohio,

assignors to The Mosler Safe Company, Hamilton,

Ohio, a corporation of New York Filed Sept. 9, 1966, Ser. No. 578,277

US. Cl. 109-59 Int. Cl. Eg 1/04; E05b 65/52, 63/00 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a safe and, more particularly, to a file cabinet type of record safe.

Safes are classified by the US. Government in accordance with the degree of security which they afford. Class 5 safes, the class with which this invention is primarily concerned, are expected to withstand a thirty minute surreptitious entry attempt and a ten minute forced entry attempt. This invention is primarily concerned with resistance to forced entry attack.

It has been a primary objective of this invention to provide a record safe cabinet which successfully resists forceful attack methods for a period of time in excess of the duration specified for a class 5 security file.

Another objective of the invention has been to provide a security file cabinet structure which is inexpensive to manufacture and has improved strength characteristics.

One aspect of this invention is predicated upon the discovery that a welded safe cabinet having a combination fillet and butt welded corner structure has greater strength, and thus resistance to forceful attack, than a conventional butt welded gusset reinforced corner. Prior to this invention, it has been the practice in the manufacture of safes to butt weld the exterior plates of the safe and to reinforce the corner with gussets welded or otherwise secured in the interior of the corner. We have found that greater strength is derived from butt welding the exterior of the safe corner and fillet welding the interior of the corner. An incidental benefit derived from this latter construction is the lack of a protrusion in the form of a gusset into the interior of the safe which necessarily restricts interior space and mars the interior appearance.

Another aspect of this invention concerns the boltwork for locking the door of the safe. This boltwork comprises a series of movable parts, all of which are so interrelated that a forced entry into the safe requires one of the parts to be compromised by overcoming the compressive strength of that part. In other words, boltwork is so interconnected that all par-ts are placed in compression during an attempt to forcefully compromise the locked safe. This construction thus takes advantage of the maximum strength characteristic of the component parts of the boltwork in contrast to other systems which rely upon the tension, shear, or bending strength of the boltwork to resist forced entry.

Briefly, the inventive boltwork of this invention comprises a pair of vertically movable bars operable when separated by actuation of a door handle to move the door bolts into locked position, and when moved into endwise juxtaposition, to cause the bolts to be moved into unlocked condition. A bolt of a combination lock is movable between the separated vertical bars so as to secure them against movement into endwise juxtaposition except after proper manipulation of the lock. In order to prevent the door bolts from being forced inwardly from the extended or locked position, the vertical bars carry blocking elements which are movable between a fixed or stationary part of the door and the extended bolts.

The primary advantage of this boltwork is that it precludes the door bolts from being pounded or forced into the locked door by placing blocking elements between the extended bolts and a stationary part of the door. Additionally, forceful entry cannot be gained by forcing the vertical bars inwardly because of the placement of the bolt of the combination lock between the extended bars. Thus, forced entry of the safe by compromising the boltwork requires that one of these boltwork elements be compressed or attacked in compression.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be more readily apparent from the following description of the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of a security file incorporating the invention of this application,

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the safe of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a rear elevational view of the door with the back plate removed and illustrating the door in the locked condition,

FIGURE 5 is a view identical to FIGURE 4 but with the door in the unlocked condition,

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of the boltwork of the door in a locked condition,

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 but with the boltwork in an unlocked condition,

FIGURE 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIGURE 4,

FIGURE 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 99 of FIGURE 4,

FIGURE 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 10-10 of FIGURE 9,

FIGURE 11 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the encircled portion of FIGURE 3.

Referring first to FIGURES l and 2, it will be seen that the security file of this invention comprises a cabinet or enclosure 10 made from welded plates which define side walls 11, 12, a rear wall 13, a top wall 14, and a bottom wall 15. A door 16 is pivotally supported from the side plate 12 by a pair of hinges 17 which comprise hinge plates 18 welded to the door 16 and side plate 12, respectively, and interconnected by hinge pins 19.

As may be seen most clearly in FIGURES 2, 3, and 11, the side plates 12, rear plate 13, top plate 14, and bottom plate 15 are secured together by weldments to form the complete cabinet enclosure. Each of these weldments comprises a pair of continuous welds, a butt weld 25 along the exterior edge of each corner joint and a fillet weld 26 along the inside of each of the corner joints. Each weldment, including both the butt and fillet weld extends for the full length of each side of each plate. It has been found that a combination butt and fillet Weld which extends for the full length of the seam or side edge produces a corner assembly which is much stronger and resistant to forced entry than prior art assemblies which typically comprise a butt welded edge reinforced by a gusset plate inside the corner.

Referring to FIGURES 3, 8, and 9, it will be seen that the door jamb of the cabinet is defined by steel door jamb bars 28, 29, and 30 which extend around the periphery of the door opening of the cabinet. (The door jamb bar for the bottom of the door is not shown in the drawings.) A recess or groove 37 in the front of each bar 28, 29, 30, and the bottom bar accommodates an interfitting or interlocking front edge 35 of the door 16 when the door is closed.

The door jamb bar 29 on the hinged side of the door has a series of blocks 38 (FIGURE 3) attached to the rear side thereof which define recesses for the accommodation of dead bolts 39 attached to the hinged side of the door. The dead bolts 39 prevent unauthorized opening of the door by simply removing the hinges and pulling the door forward.

As may be seen most clearly in FIGURES 3, 4, 8 and 9, the door 16 comprises a front plate 40 upon the rear of which are mounted a pair of generally Z-shaped side channels 41, 42, bottom channel 43, and top channel 44. These channels 41, 42, 43, and 44, together with the front plate 40, define a lock mechanism housing or chamber 45, the rear of which is enclosed by a removable rear door panel 46.

A mounting plate 47 is attached to the rear of the front door plate 40 in spaced relation thereto. One vertical edge 48 of this mounting plate 47 is bent forwardly and welded to the rear side of the front plate 40 while the opposite vertical edge is welded to the side channel 41.

Opening and closing of the door 16 is controlled by a combination lock 50 and a door handle 51. A shaft 56 of the lock extends through the front plate 40 and mounting plate 47 to connect the dial 55 of the lock 50 to the combination lock mechanism 59. The lock mechanism 59 is mounted on the rear of the mounting plate 47 within a sheet metal enclosure 60 which has a liner 62 made from conventional drill resistant material. This liner 62 includes a removable cover 63 which is laterally slidable in the direction of the hinged side of the door to open the enclosure and render the lock mechanism 59 accessible for purposes of changing the lock combination. To prevent the cover 63 from ever being opened when the door is closed and locked, as for example after drilling a hole in the rear wall 13 of the file, a blocking pin 64 extends between the edge of the cover and an abutment block 61 welded to the side wall 11 of the file behind the door jamb bar 28. This pin 64 extends through and is slidable within an aperture 58 in the side channel 41 of the door to allow the cover 63 of the enclosure to be opened when the door is standing open.

The boltwork, which is pictured in perspective in the locked condition in FIGURE 6 and unlocked condition in FIGURE 7, is mounted interiorly of the door chamber 45 upon a pair of L-shaped channels 65, 66. One leg 67 of each of these channels 65, 66 is welded to the rear of the door mounting plate 47. Each of these channels 65,66 supports a pair of U-shaped guide channels 69 and 70, the open ends of which are welded to the rearwardly extending leg 71 of the channels 65, 66 to form a rectangular guideway for reception of a pair of vertically movable bars 75, 76. The bars 75, 76 comprise U-shaped channels within which are welded spaced blocking elements 78 and 79. These blocking elements 78, 79 function to preclude forced inward or unlocking movement of the door bolts 80, 81,

82, and 83 When the door is locked, as is explained more fully hereinafter.

In order to permit assembly of the vertically movable bars 75, 76 within the guideways defined by the guide channels 69 and 70, both the bottom and top channels 43 and 44 of the door are provided with apertures 71 through which the bars 75, 76 are insertable into the interior 45 of the door. The apertures '70 are closed by caps 73 secured to the door channels 43, 44 by screws 74 (see FIGURE 10).

Vertical movement of the bars 75, '76 is controlled from the door handle 51 by a linkage system indicated generally by the numeral 85. This linkage system comprises a handle shaft 86 which extends inwardly from the door handle 51 through a bushing 87 mounted within and extending through the front plate 40 and the door mounting plate 47. The inner end of this shaft 86 is nonrotatably secured to a pair of spaced, generally horizontal, linkage elements 88, 89 between which a pair of vertical linkage elements 90, 91 are pivotally secured by pivot shafts 92, 93 respectively. As may be seen most clearly in FIGURES 6 and 7, rotational movement of the handle shaft 86 and thus of the connected linkage elements 88, 89 effects vertical movement of the linkage elements 9.0, 91.

The upper end of the Vertical linkage element 91 is pivotally secured to a cam plate 94 by a pivot pin 95 and similarly, the lower end of the vertical linkage element 90 is pivotally secured to a cam plate 96 by a pivot pin 97 and horizontal link 98. The link 98 is welded to the cam plate 96 and forms a horizontal extension thereof. Thus the vertical link 90 is effectively pivotally secured to the cam plate 96.

The cam plates 94, 96 are welded to the vertically movable bars 75, 76 respectively such that vertical movement of the cam plates 94, 96 as a consequence of rotational movement of the handle 51 elfects ver-tic-al movement of the bars 75, 7 6.

A second pair of cam plates 99--99 are welded to the bars 75 and 76 near the top and bottom.

All of the cam plates 94, 96 and 9999 are provided with a cam slot 100 which is angulated at approximately 45 relative to a horizontal plane through the slot. The slots 100 in the upper pair of cam plates 94 and 99 have a vertical extension 101 at the lower end and similarly, the slots 100 in the lower pair of cam plates 96, 99 have a vertical extension 101 at the upper end. 'Ihese cam slots 100 control horizontal movement of the door bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 as in explained hereinafter.

(The outer end Olf each of the bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 is slidable within a guide bushing 105 mounted within the side channel 41 of the door (see FIGURE 8). At the inner ends, the bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 are supported [from the cam plates 94, 96, and 99-99 by guide pins in the form of screws 106 which extend through the cam slots 100 of the cam plates 94, 96, and 9999. Because the cam slots are angulat-ed, vertical movement of the cam plates as a result of vertical movement of the bars 75, 76, causes the pins 106 and the attached bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 to be moved horizontally.

As may be seen most clearly in FIGURES 4, 5, and 6, a tension spring is secured between the cam plate 94 and a support bracket 11'1 attached to the rear mounting plate 47. This tension spring 110 carries the weight of the boltwork and bias the door bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 into the locked or extended posit-ion.

In order to hold the door bolts in the withdrawn or unlocked condition when and so long as the door is open, an interlock indicated generally at 108, is mounted interiorly of the door lock chamber 45. This interlock comprises a detent pin 109 movable into and through a hole 113 in the vertically movable bar 75 to hold this bar 75 in its lower or door open position. When the pin 109 is withdrawn from the aperture 113, the spring 110 is operative to pull the bar upwardly and force the bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 of the door out to a locked position.

The detent pin 109 is supported for sliding movement in an aperture 115 of a bracket 1 16 which is welded to the vertical mounting channel 65 and in an aperture 117 of the channel 65. Sliding movement or the detent pin 109 is controlled by a vertical link 11 8 mounted for pivot-a1 movement on a pivot pin 119. The upper end of the link 11 8 is pivotally secured to the detent pin '109 while the lower end is pivotally secured to an interlock control rod 120. One end of this rod is slidable within an aperture in the mounting bracket 116 While the opposite end is slidable within and extends through an aperture in the vertical door channel 42. A compression spring 122 is mounted over the control rod 120 and extends between a collar 123 attached to the control rod and the bracket 116 so as to bias the rod 120 to the left as viewed in FIGURES 4 and 5 to a position in which the rod extends beyond the vertical channel 42 into engagement with the block 30.

When the door is closed, control rod '120 is located in the position illustrated in FIGURE 4 in which the end of the rod 120 is engaged with the abutment block 30 In this position of the control rod, the detent pin Q is out of engagement with the aperture 116 in the vertically movable bar 75. When the door is unlocked, the vertical bar 75 is moved downwardly so that the aperture 1 16 is aligned with the detent pin 109. Subsequently, when the door is opened, the detent pin enters the aperture 113 as a consequence of the spring 122 moving the interlock control rod to the left as viewed in FIGURE 4. So long as the door remains open, the control rod 120 remains extended beyond the hinged edge of the door and the detent pin 10!) remains in the aperture 113 of the vertically movable bar 75. Thus the pin 109 holds the bar 75 down against the bias of the spring 110 and retains the door bolts withdrawn into the door. When the door is subsequently closed, the end of the bar 120 at the hinged side of the door engages the abutment block 30, causing the control rod 120 to be moved to the right as viewed in FIGURE 4 against the bias Olf the spring 122. This effects leftward movement of the detent pin 109 so that it is withdrawn from the aperture 116 at which time the spring 110 moves the bar 75 upwardly and the door bolts out to the locked position.

When the door is locked, the channels 75, 76 move apart and the abutment blocks 78, 79 mounted within the channels '75 and 76 enter behind the door bolts 80, 81, 82, and 83 so as to form a solid abutment between the bolts and the stationary channel 6-5 of the door. With the bars 75, 76 separated, the dial 5-5 of the combination lock may be manipulated to move the lock bolt 52 into longitudinal alignment with the lower end 130 of the bar 75 and the upper end 161 of the bar 76. In this position of the lock bolt 52, it precludes the bars 7 5, 76 from being moved together into the unlocked position.

If a successful forced entry of the safe is to be accomplished by attacking the boltwork of the file, it is necessary to overcome the compressive resistance of either the bolts 80, 8 1, 82, and 83, the blocking elements 76, 79, the vertical bars 75, 76 or the bolt 52. As is commonly known, the compressive strength of solid metal parts, such as those used in this boltwork, is far superior to the shear, tensile, or bending strength. Thus, placement of all of the movable parts of the boltwork in compression during any lforceful entry attempt markedly increases the resistance to such an entry.

While only a single preferred embodiment of the security file of this invention has been disclosed and described herein, those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains will readily appreciate numerous changes and modifications which may be made without departing from the spirit of our invention. Therefore, we do not intend to be limited except by the scope of the appended claims.

H-av-ing described our invention, we claim:

1. A security file comprising:

a file cabinet having a pivotally mounted door, locking mechanism mounted upon said door, said locking mechanism comprising:

a pair of vertically movable lock bars mounted upon the inside of the door,

at least two laterally movable door bolts mounted upon said door and operatively connected to said lock bars, said door bolts being movable upon vertical movement of said lock bars between a locking position in which they extend beyond the swinging edge of said door and an unlocked position in which they are withdrawn into said door,

a door handle mounted upon said door and operatively connected to said lock bars, said handle being movable in one direction to move said bars apart and thus elfect locking movement of the door bolts and movable in an opposite direction to move said bars together into endwise juxtaposition to effect unlocking movement of said door bolts, and

a door lock mounted upon said door and having a lock bolt movable between a locked position in which said lock bolt extends between said vertically movable bars and an unlocked position in which said lock bolt is out of longitudinal alignment with said bars so that said bars may be moved by said handle into endwise juxtaposition.

2. The security file of claim 1 wherein said vertically movable bars include a solid blocking element movable between each of said door bolts and a stationary part of the door.

3. The security file of claim 1 wherein each of said door bolts is operatively connected to one of said lock bars by a cam plate and cam follower.

4. The security file of claim 3 wherein each of said cam plates is attached to one of said lock bars and each of said cam followers is attached to one of said door bolts.

5. The security file of claim 1 wherein said door bolts are biased into the locked position by a spring element.

6. The security file of claim 5 further comprising an interlock mechanism operable to hold the door bolts in an unlocked position so long as the door is open and operable to release said door bolts for movement into the locked position when said door is closed.

7. The security file of claim 6 wherein said interlock mechanism comprises a detent pin movable into engagement with a recess in one of said lock bars, a pivotally mounted linkage element connected at one end to said detent pin, and a control rod connected to the opposite end of said linkage element and engageable with a stationary part of the file cabinet during the closing of the door to withdraw the detent pin from said recess.

8. A security file for resisting forced entry techniques, said file comprising:

top, bottom, rear and side plates welded together to form a cabinet enclosure, said enclosure having a weldment located along each joint between said plates operative to hold the plates in assembled relation,

each of said weldments comprising a continuous butt weld which extends for the full length of the joint between said plates and is located on and exposed to the exterior of the cabinet, and a continuous fillet weld which extends for the full length of the joint between said plates and is located on the inside of the cabinet,

a door pivotally mounted upon said enclosure and at least partially defining a front wall,

a locking mechanism mounted upon said door and operable to hold said door closed and locked relative to said enclosure, said locking mechanism comprising:

a pair of vertically movable lock bars mounted upon the inside of the door,

at least two laterally movable door bolts mounted upon said door and operatively connected to said lock bars, said door bolts being movable upon vertical movement of said lock bars between a locking position in which they extend beyond the swinging edge of said door and an unlocked position in which they are withdrawn into said door,

a door handle mounted upon said door and operatively connected to said lock bars, said handle being operable to move said bars apart and thus effect locking movement of the lock bolts and movable together into endwise juxtaposition to effect unlocking movement of said door bolts, and

a door lock mounted upon said door and having a which said lock bolt extends between said vertically movable bars and an unlocked position in which said lock bolt is out of longitudinal alignment with said bars so that said bars may be moved by said handle into endwise juxtaposition.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,756,387 4/1930 Ronk. 10 3,070,046 12/1962 Paulos 109-59 FOREIGN PATENTS 268,098 3/1927 Great Britain.

lock bolt movable between a locked position in 15 REINALDO P. MACHADO, Primary Examiner. 

